(ESPN) Chennai Super Kings, under a brand-new captain, enjoyed a winning start to their defence of the IPL title in front of a raucous Chepauk crowd last night. Mustafizur Rahman, who was among four debutants for CSK, took out four of Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s top five in the space of ten balls to set up an eighth successive defeat for RCB in Chennai.
Rachin Ravindra, who was playing his first IPL game, also played his part in the victory, with 37 off 15 balls at a strike rate of 246.66 on a pitch that slowed down later in the night. In his first game as CSK captain, Ruturaj Gaikwad started with a first-ball four, but RCB’s Impact Player Yash Dayal cut his innings short on 15 in CSK’s chase of 174.
Cameron Green and Alzarri Joseph then briefly silenced the Chepauk crowd with their contrasting styles. While Green bowled slower cutters into the pitch, Joseph operated at high speeds and generated steep bounce, taking the pitch out of the equation.
Shivam Dube, who was working his way back from injury, replaced Mustafizur as an Impact Player for CSK and laboured to 7 off 13 balls. But he then turned up the tempo to usher CSK home with an unbeaten 34 off 28 balls along with Ravindra Jadeja, who scored an unbeaten 25 off 17. MS Dhoni didn’t get to bat in the chase, but perhaps this is what he had hoped for when he handed over the keys of the CSK kingdom to Gaikwad.
RCB’s Jekyll-and-Hyde powerplay
After opting to bat in what was his first IPL game as an opposition player in Chennai, Faf du Plessis dashed out of the blocks, hitting seven fours in the first three overs. He latched on to any width that Deepak Chahar and Tushar Deshpande offered, repeatedly pumping them over the off-side infield. Gaikwad got into the act and pushed extra cover back to deep cover and, on cue, Mustafizur had du Plessis holing out to Rachin Ravindra there for 35 off 21 balls. Three balls later, Mustafizur found a bit of extra bounce to have Rajat Patidar nicking off for a duck. Then, in the final over of the powerplay, Chahar had Glenn Maxwell guiding one straight into Dhoni’s gloves, also for a duck.
After being on 37 for no loss in the first four overs, RCB lost three wickets for five runs in the next two.
Mustafizur then returned in the 12th over and dismissed Virat Kohli and Green in the space of three balls. While Kohli dragged a pull off a seam-up delivery to deep midwicket for 21 off 20 balls, Green was bowled by a whippy cutter for 18 off 22 balls. It was Mustafizur’s second double-wicket over.
Mustafizur might not even have played had CSK’s death-overs specialist Matheesha Pathirana been fit. He ended up with figures of 4-0-29-4 on a night where the other two seamers in his team – Chahar and Deshpande – went at well over nine an over. When Pathirana returns to action, CSK will have a happy selection headache.
That RCB finished with 173 for 6 was down to a counterattacking 95-run partnership for the sixth wicket off just 50 balls that ended off the last ball of the innings courtesy a Dhoni direct hit.
At one stage, RCB went 28 balls without a boundary, but Rawat then hit two in six balls to set RCB up for the end overs. He then walloped Deshpande for 6,6, 4 in a 25-run 18th over. At the other end, Karthik looked rusty to start with, but mixed power with inventiveness to give RCB’s innings more impetus.
Dube gets the job done for CSK
After CSK lost Gaikwad in the powerplay, Ravindra lined up RCB’s quicks with pulls and pick-up shots. He even whacked Karn Sharma over midwicket for six, but when he went for another six, he holed out to deep square-leg.
Ajinkya Rahane (27 off 19 balls) and Daryl Mitchell (22 off 18) made cameos to take the chase deep in typical CSK style. But when Green snagged Mitchell, CSK still needed 64 off 45 balls. The two-bouncer rule empowered Joseph to run in hard and hit the deck even harder. Dube, however, just about passed the short-ball test and sealed the chase with six wickets and eight balls to spare.